(Copy and Paste from the IFC if you don’t mind)
Hey all! I’m proud to announce that I have successfully completed my first general aviation flight in over a year. I was able to take this opportunity with Civil Air Patrol (CAP) who hosted their first Orientation Flights (O-Ride) since last year. This gave me the opportunity to hop back into flying again!
To give a brief explanation of CAP, it’s a youth / adult government organization which educates and employs many future cadets who’ve started to pursue an aviation career. I’ve joined last year and unfortunately, that was a week into the pandemic so the O-Rides have been halted. CAP gives you 5 free O-Rides after you join which is an awesome opportunity to hop in an aircraft and get flying.
Today’s flight brought me, the pilot (who was extremely nice), and 2 other CAP members from North Las Vegas Airport (KVGT) to Perkins Field (U08) and back. Both ways takes roughly 30 minutes.
The aircraft for today’s flight was an Australian-made Gippsland GA-8 Skyvan.The registration is N474CP.
I sat on the 2nd left row on this 8 seater aircraft. I was extremely happy to see us up in the air after so long.
After transitioning Nellis AFB and having one of the CAP Members hand-fly, we begin descent to U08 over the Valley of Fire! 
After a smooth (not really) touchdown into Perkins, we switch controls and I head up to the co-pilots seat.
I had the ability to hand-fly the full 28 minutes back excluding the takeoff and landing. Some minor turbulences over Nellis on the way back but it was awesome to have controls again!
A little video of the landing by the pilot!
Lastly, here was flight path.
Extreme appreciation for CAP for letting members do this free orientation flights. This is what makes them stand out. I definitely suggest everyone to join as it’s a great experience for everyone!
Here’s the link if you’re interested 
